I'm curious to see Gaara's reaction, but I have a question. I can definitely see Naruto behaving this way as the Naruto's biggest core quality is his loyalty to his friends, after all that's why he put up with Sasuke's bullshit. So, I could see Naruto even wanting to burn the world to protect his friends, which he views as family. But, are what you saying in the authors note is that now he's willing to abandon some of his friend's? Or, are you saying that it's more along the lines of "I won't join Suna, Suna will have to join me" kind of thing. Or, is it that he's just not going to get as hung up on friendship should his former friends (like Lee and Chouji) come after him. I can understand his prioritizing his Pride but I can't see him ignoring Gaara when he's in trouble. Anyway good job on the chapter, and I think I see what's going on with Sasuke, he's pulling the Aizen villain thing, using the Good guy act to subtly manipulate Konoha into his image and I got a feeling its going to be reminiscent of Danzo's, but I've been wrong before about my predictions in regards to your stories so am excited to see what you come up with.
Author's response
Thanks for the review.
The answer to your first question is complicated. It should be made clearer when we do see Gaara and Naruto together for the first time. But in a nut shell it would boil down to Suna's problems are not my family's problems. It's a tad more complicated then that, which the story will dive into.